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Friday, May 12, 2017

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 31

by Patrick Bromley

I'm on vacation with the family, JB and Jan right now, but I couldn't let the weekend go by without giving you all some stuff to watch!

Beyond the Gates(2016, dir. Jackson Stewart) I mean, come on. Of course I'm going to recommend this one, which just showed up on Netflix a few days ago after its Blu-ray release last week. I have been singing the praises of this movie for nearly a year now. It was my favorite horror movie of 2016 and a movie I've watched more than any other movie released in the last year. The co-writer and director, Jackson Stewart, has guested on the podcast a couple of times to talk about crazy Italian horror movies. Graham Skipper and Chase Williamson are both great. Brea Grant is in it. Barbara Crampton is in it. You may not love the movie. You may not even like it. But understanding that I love it should hopefully give you some insight into who I am -- not that you're looking for that, necessarily, but I bring it up because this is the kind of movie that speaks to me on such a personal level that it's part of my DNA. We are lucky when we find movies like that. (Watch on Netflix)

Dark Blue (2003, dir. Ron Shelton) My favorite actor gives one of his very best performances in this underrated crime drama from Ron Shelton, best known for writing and directing sports movies.

The screenplay, written by James Ellroy and David Ayer (don't hold that against it), finds Kurt Russell playing a corrupt L.A. cop in the days leading up to the riots of 1992. The supporting cast is solid and the film offers a new take on the police drama -- one rooted in a specific time and place -- but it's really Kurt Russell's electric performance that demands to be seen. The actor himself has named this as one of his favorite things he's done. He's not wrong. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984, dir. W.D. Richter) Like most movies engineered to be cult films, this probably shouldn't work...but goddamn if it doesn't work like gangbusters. Between an insanely kickass cast and three movies' worth of '80s sci-fi weirdness, W.D. Richter's classic is the kind of movie that probably needed some time and perspective to fully be appreciated. As someone with an unhealthy preoccupation with movies of this period, I love a film that could only be made in the early '80s when weird genre films were accepted in wide release. Few movies represent this period better than Buckaroo Banzai. The fact that we never did get Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League is something I still haven't fully gotten over. (Watch on Hulu)

Nothing Bad Can Happen (2013, dir. Katrin Gebbe) This is a tough watch. A tough watch. Purported to be inspired by actual events, this German drama follows a young man who is unwavering in his Christian faith who falls in with a family that slowly begins to resent his beliefs. To test him, they begin to torture him. It's harsh and it's awful -- the kind of real-life horror that throws movies about ghosts and monsters into sharp relief. The movie isn't for everyone (I'm not even sure it's for me), but it's super interesting and often very well made. Just don't say I didn't warn you. (Watch on Shudder)

Gymkata (1985, dir. Robert Clouse) I will confess I have never seen Gymkata. It's a movie that is so ironically beloved in some circles that it has become synonymous with "so bad it's good." I have no interest in that shit, but I do have tremendous interest in a movie set in a future in which gymnastics and martial arts come together as one. If nothing else, I need to see if just to decide if it's worth the reputation. (Watch on Warner Archive)

6 comments:

"Gymkata" is where it's at and was a childhood fav of mine. Have a great vacation you guys! Let me know if you get to sneak into the underground android factory of world domination under Epcot's Spaceship Earth.

I love that people love Buckaroo Banzai, but I just don't get it. I recently did weekend of watching Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and Buckaroo Banzai to fill some gaps in my childhood viewing, and Banzai just felt like several amazing concepts crammed into one poorly executed film. I did enjoy the other two movies (especially Big Trouble).